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Begin article
East Africa pastoral systems are those grazing lands or range lands of Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, the Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania (Tanzania) and Uganda. These comprise extensive semi-arid to arid grasslands, savannas, bush-lands and woodlands, and also cover the natural grazing areas of the extensive highland areas of the region. These are also the pastoral rangelands defined as “uncultivated land that will support grazing or browsing animals”. (Holechek, Pieper and Herbel (1989))

Pastoral management systems in eastern Africa have developed over the last three to four thousand years by the indigenous groups of pastoral peoples living in the region, whose livelihoods depend on livestock. These traditional and often sustainable ways are now being threatened by agricultural development, the need to produce more food from marginal lands, population growth and global climate change. Fluctuations in rainfall and drought are recurring problems in the rangelands of the region and 70 million people in the Horn of Africa, many of whom are pastoralists, suffer from long-term chronic food insecurity (FAO, 2000). Poverty levels are high, with more than half of the people in the region surviving on less than US$ 1 per day (Thornton et al., 2002). The population of the region has doubled since 1974, and it is predicted to increase another 40 percent by 2015 (FAO, 2000). Against this background, the traditional ways of pastoralists continue to change, and many are settling (or are settled) and diversifying their income-generating activities into crop production, wage labour and other activities, while other family members continue to herd the family stock and move to follow the availability of forage.

Development over time
Pastoral management systems in eastern Africa have developed over the last three to four thousand years by the indigenous groups of pastoral peoples living in the region, whose livelihoods depend on livestock. These traditional and often sustainable ways are now being threatened by agricultural development, the need to produce more food from marginal lands, population growth and global climate change. Fluctuations in rainfall and drought are recurring problems in the rangelands of the region and 70 million people in the Horn of Africa, many of whom are pastoralists, suffer from long-term chronic food insecurity (FAO, 2000). Poverty levels are high, with more than half of the people in the region surviving on less than US$ 1 per day (Thornton et al., 2002). The population of the region has doubled since 1974, and it is predicted to increase another 40 percent by 2015 (FAO, 2000). Against this background, the traditional ways of pastoralists continue to change, and many are settling (or are settled) and diversifying their income-generating activities into crop production, wage labour and other activities, while other family members continue to herd the family stock and move to follow the availability of forage.

Potential vegetation
The productive potential of the eastern African region varies enormously from place to place, due to the differences in the growing season across the region.

The potential vegetation of eastern Africa is largely desert and semi desert (26 percent of the land surface), bushland (33 percent) and woodland (21 percent) (from Figure 2.3; White, 1983). Only 12 percent of the region is naturally forested, and even less is pure grassland (7 percent). Afromontane vegetation, much of it potential grazing land, is rare (0.5 percent) and mostly restricted to Ethiopia, with very small amounts on volcanic mountains in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Although pure grassland is found only in central Harpachne schimperi - Athi plains in Kenya. and south-eastern Sudan, northern and western Tanzania and northwest Kenya, the herbaceous layer of semi-deserts, bushlands and woodlands are dominated by grasses, so they are included here as part of the “grass -dominated areas” of eastern Africa because of their importance for livestock and wildlife. This means that 75 percent of eastern Africa is dominated by either pure grasslands or grasslands with varying amounts of woody vegetation within or above the grass layer. Significant woodlands exist only in southern Sudan, Tanzania and Eritrea, and in northern Uganda and western Ethiopia.